In order to link the development of cycle sport with early Basque
nationalism, it is necessary to briefly account for the historical
development of the nationalist movement founded by Sabino Arana-Goiri in
1895. Catalan and Basque nationalisms were historically based on periods of
uniqueness in culture and language, although after the hegemonic rise of
Castile in the late Fifteenth Century, regional autonomy was eroded via
political federation and centralisation to Castile.1 The
beginning of the Nineteenth Century exposed Spain to liberalism through the
Napoleonic Wars and the revived European Romantic movement. Nationalism was
partly inspired by this exposure, as historical and cultural myths were
reawakened across Europe.2 By the 1890’s, Spain’s belated
industrialisation, mostly concentrated in the Basque Country and Catalunya,
facilitated the base for popular nationalism and cultural linguistic
revivalism, encouraged by regional economic and ethnic concerns.3

Genuine Basque nationalism initially developed during the 1890’s in the
Vizcaya province and spread to the other provinces.4 This process
was gradual, as during these industrialising years the Basque Country
remained largely rural with industry and modernity only affecting the large
cities. Furthermore, the region’s deep Roman Catholic religious nature and
historical attachment to Carlism seemed paradoxical to the modern philosophy
of nationalism. However, the mythical history and unique linguistic tongue
of the region, combined with religiosity and notions of purity of race,
became the basis for a strident nationalism, reinforced by claims to ancient
rights embodied in the fueros.5These ancient laws and
privileges (varying province to province, but including exemption from
military service and duty taxes) were recognised by Castile from the
Eleventh Century, but were abolished after the Second Carlist War 1873-74.6

The definition of modern Basque nationalism was established in 1895
through the work of Arana. He created a working nationalism, reviving the
myths, history, language and claims of racial superiority based upon the
fueros notion of a separate nation from Spain. Arana’s ideas drew little
initial interest, but the industrialising process brought an influx of
immigrants and with them alien ideals such as socialism, trade unionism and
anti-clericalism, all of which were considered by Arana a threat to Basque
culture and ethnicity. Arana’s claims that the fueros represented a
Basque past of moral superiority and of a mythical democracy were
exaggerated, as they served the purposes of Castile equally well.
Furthermore, there was never a unified Basque Country.7 The basis
for Basque nationalism (other than race, which was later discredited by
most) was language (Euskera or Euskara). Arana effectively revived
Euskera. Previously it had declined dramatically, lacking literary history
and was not easily adapted to modern language structures.8 A fact
which, conversely further reinforced Basque distinctiveness and today’s
debates amongst linguistic experts as to its origins.

Nationalism was more obvious in the form of xenophobia directed at the
immigrant workers, especially in 1890’s Vizcaya. In 1890 Arana produced his
first work Vizcaya por su Independecia. By 1895 the Partido
Nacionalista Vasco (PNV) was established as a political movement. The early
PNV was predominated by social, cultural and folklore aspects and appealed
to traditionalists threatened by liberalism, socialism and Castile’s
‘immorality’.9 Arana believed that the region had enjoyed a
pre-industrial Arcadia and immigration had destroyed this. Beyond this Arana
and the early PNV lacked a coherent political programme.10

PNV electoral success occurred in 1896. Five PNV were elected in Bilbao’s
municipal elections and in 1898, Arana was elected to the Provincial Council
of Vizcaya. The PNV suffered from its Carlist middle class background and
from a lack of viable candidates, but crucially it lacked industrial support
until 1898. Then the Euskalerico business group led by Ramón de la Sota, a
shipping industrialist, merged with the PNV boosting its financial support.
This event was the first seed, which would later create the social,
political and economic basis upon which Basque cycle sport would find
commercial sponsorship and ultimately a nationalist embodiment in the form
of equipo Euskadi.

The industrial business sector had grown rapidly to this point and
resented the cacique structure dominated by the Chavarri landowners.
The PNV was seen as an ideal party machine to challenge this monopoly.
Business conservatives were also becoming concerned at PSOE (Partido
Socialista Obrera Español) successes in Bilbao in 1899. The El Correo
Vasco daily was launched that year and in the municipal elections eight
PNV candidates were returned in Bilbao. Across Vizcaya more councillors were
elected for the first time, prompting government repression of the right to
publication and assembly.11

In 1902, Arana was jailed for his views on Cuban nationalism. Released in
1903, he moderated his autonomy goal, hoping this would allow the PNV to
function, but in 1903 Arana died (38 years old). His successor Angel de
Zabala remained radical but was forced to share power with de la Sota, until
a split proved inevitable on the election of a new national committee in
1906, headed by Luis Arana, president of the PNV; continuing the orthodox
doctrine. Any hopes of Cortes success for the business sector were blocked
and 1907 saw the effective split of the PNV. The PNV Assembly at Elgoibar
(1908) marked a win for the moderate autonomy programme, aiming for Foral
restoration and not separatism. The criteria for Basque identity also
moderated, no longer requiring two Basque parental names. De la Sota became
president in 1909 and supported the protectionist policies of the
conservative Prime Minister, Maura.12 Efforts were made to combat
socialist influence in the shipyards, hence a Catholic trade union was
established on PNV lines (1911), supported by the nationalist employers; SOV
(Solidaridad de Obreros Vascos).13

The First World War brought enormous profits to the Basque Country. The
industrial base was ideal and the ending of competition until 1918 benefited
the supply and internal markets. Liberal attempts to impose a war profits
tax marked a unified response between Basque and Catalan nationalists. De la
Sota resisted the taxation of the Minister of Economy, Santiago Alba and
proved the effective nature of conservative alliance. Consequently, the PNV
polled well in both the provincial and national elections of 1917. PNV
policy seemed justified in 1918 with the election of 7 deputies to the
Cortes.14 The First World War period also increased the internal
divides between the Aranistas of Luis and the Sotistas. De la Sota supported
the Allies with whom his enterprise had business dealings, whilst Luis
favoured the Germans. Religious unity prevented serious fracture, but by
1921 Luis formed an extremist breakaway movement. This group became the
orthodox Aranistas.15

The anti-regionalist policies of Primo de Rivera (1923-1930) effectively
pushed nationalist activity underground. Illegality conversely encouraged
unity with the result that by the fall of the dictatorship in 1930, the
movement reunited at the Vergara Conference (November 1930), behind an
orthodox ideology influenced by the failure of the bourgeois alliance to
deliver autonomy from its central government colleagues. Solidity was still
not clear, however, as a new breakaway group formed, the ANV (Acción
Nacionalista Vasca). Their programme was non-confessional, with an urban
middle class complexion attempting to adapt nationalism to urban society,
without the old Aranista racism. The ANV’s main objective was to establish
an Euskadi as a centralised state, not just a federation of provinces
with Foral rights.16

The 1931 collapse of the monarchy did not witness PNV participation in
the San Sabastian Pact of the Republicans and Catalan nationalists, but the
potential for autonomy was recognised. The new younger leadership were more
united. The PNV formed an electoral slate with the Carlists and the
conservative Roman Catholics with success in the April 1931 municipal
elections. In June a meeting at Estalla drafted an autonomy statute whilst
parliamentary elections returned 14 PNV/Carlist alliance candidates to the
Cortes. The Republican Left initially feared the reactionary complexion of
the PNV with its religious affiliations, yet much of the decision upon how
to approach this was decided by the Carlist and Roman Catholic rejection of
secularist elements in the Republican Constitution of 1931.

Navarra had long enjoyed a privileged position within the Spanish State
and was different to the other provinces. Separated geographically by
mountains and with a less industrialised, more rural, pro-Carlist and Roman
Catholic population, Navarra thus remained outside of the Euskadi grouping
in 1932.17 This historical event has subsequently fuelled the
nationalist sporting debate between the modern Madrid based press and Basque
nationalists, as to whether the legendary Miguel Indurain is a Basque, a
Spaniard or indeed a Navarran.

Industrialisation, Modernity and Cycling

The emergence of Vizcayan industrialisation began in the 1860’s, but by
1900, the Basque industrial centres, extensively port towns and cities,
benefited from Western European demands for non-phosphoric ores, which were
used in the Bessemer process. The industries that developed extensively by
the turn of the century, were predominantly based around the supply of
iron-ore and steel production, in addition to other metallurgical industries
(especially in Bilbao) and associated industries such as shipping.18
The Basque Country and Catalunya developed as Spain’s only true examples of
modernity in an industrialising Europe, most of the rest of Spain being
predominantly agricultural. Basque concentration on heavy industries set it
apart from Catalunya which was comparatively more merchant trade based at
the turn of the century.19

The very nature of Basque industrialisation was entirely compatible with
the emergence of cycle sport. Steel related industries provided the raw
materials, whilst cycling itself was seen as symbolic of modernity in an era
pre-dating the car. Politically, national claims to modernity were
significant in turn of the century Europe, particularly in terms of sport.
Interestingly, Russia and Spain have been popularly perceived to be examples
of economic backwardness in industrial terms, compared to Britain, Belgium,
France and Germany, but both Russia and Spain as nation states promoted
national cycling teams as symbols of national superiority. Czarist Russia
was keen to build national cycle teams capable of winning Olympic medals at
the games of 1908 and 1912, having already won a major European cycling
title in 1898.20

It would be misleading to suggest that cycling was the only sport with a
nationalist agenda, but only cycling was perceived as exclusively symbolic
of national modernity. In France, cycling was the only sport capable of
national unification after the ruptures of the Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906),
so providing the impetus for the establishment of the Tour de France in
1903.21 Consequently, Spain and more specifically the Basque
Country became the centre of modern sport in Iberia. The extent of cycle
sport in the Basque Country was revealed by the establishment of numerous
local races and regional races in the early Twentieth Century, amongst them
the Tour of the Basque Country founded in 1924, pre-dating the establishment
of the Vuelta a España in 1935.22

The above table demonstrates well the
link between industrialisation and the establishment of national cycling
federations. In all cases industrialisation had begun to some extent at
least in the major cities or in specific regions, as in the Spanish, Russian
and Italian examples and in general the dates of establishment reflect the
national order of industrial development. However, the establishment of the
Spanish federation does not entirely reflect the penetration of the sport in
the Basque Country. By 1920, the number of cycle clubs in the region was
disproportionate to that in Spain as a whole. This reflected the industrial
and infrastructure development of the Basque Country with respect to
communications and furthermore, the external links with other European
nations brought about by trade. Before the outbreak of Civil War in 1936,
three regional cycling federations were already established in the Basque
Country.23

Cycle Sport, Capitalism, Early Nationalism to Franco

Lenin once remarked that, "a nation cannot be strong, unless it is strong
in sports".24 However, the ideals and motivations of Arana and
later the nationalist Basque business leaders, such as de la Sota, were far
from revolutionary. War profits accrued from Spain’s neutrality during World
War One, lasted until a deep post war economic and social crisis took hold
in 1920, undermining the support for the bourgeois wing of the PNV.25
Between 1918 and December 1920, the PNV electoral successes were reversed
with only one candidate re-elected to the Cortes. PNV attempts to present an
autonomy statute for Alava, Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa were disrupted in the
Cortes between January and April 1919. On 14 April 1919 the Cortes was
dissolved. Problematically for the movement, economic crisis forced the
prioritisation of business before nationalism.26

The creation and co-ordination of mountaineering, women’s’ groups and
other cultural societies was largely the work of the orthodox section led by
Luis Arana. General Primo de Rivera’s 1923 military coup and its subsequent
suppression of regionalist claims ensured that the role of cultural and
especially sporting sections of the PNV, would become a core element of
clandestine nationalist survival. Cycling clubs, although not popularly
cited as PNV organisations, inevitably played their role as a continued base
for nationalist discourse and organisation, without being repressed by the
regime. The non-suppression of Basque cycle tours and races is best
demonstrated by the establishment of the Tour of the Basque Country, just
one year into Primo’s dictatorship (1924). Conversely, Franco later
recognised the nationalist potential of a race demarcating ‘Euskadi’,
preventing its re-establishment at the end of the Spanish Civil War until
1969.27

The nationalist potential of the Tour of the Basque Country, was in the
first place well realised by its organisers, the Excelsior newspaper.
Previously, the Tour de France known in France as ‘La Grande Boucle’
(the big loop), had been established by Henri Desgranges in 1903, as an
indirect result of the Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906), which divided significant
sections of the population into Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards. When the
cycling newspaper Le Velo published a pro-Dreyfus article, its main
financial backer, the bicycle builder Baron de Dion, pulled out and started
a rival paper, L’Auto Velo. Its editor, Desgranges organised the Tour
de France to generate support for the paper, whilst hoping that a race
looping all of the French ‘departments’, would unify the French through a
sporting event into one national identity.28 Similarly, the
establishment of the Giro d’Italia in 1908 by the newspaper La Gazzetta
dello Sport, was in part motivated by the very national sporting
challenge represented by the French Tour.29 Thus, the owners of
Excelsior claimed that the Tour of the Basque Country would rival
both the Giro and the Tour, projecting a nationalist challenge to the French
and Italians, but equally demonstrating cycling’s popularity in the region.

Ironically, Excelsior was bankrupted by a printing strike in 1930,
after which only one more edition of the race occurred prior to the outbreak
of Civil War on 18 July 1936. The hopes of the Vuelta a España, established
in 1935 during the Second Republic’s last full year, to unite Spain’s
regions and dissolve political polarisation, as had been the intent of the
French Tour, was thus dashed. Conversely, the outbreak of Civil War itself
confirmed Spanish international status as a cycling nation when British
Labour organisations co-operated in an international cycle ride from Glasgow
to Barcelona during 1936, to raise awareness against the insurgent Fascist
threat and funds for the Republican war effort. The same year, the British
Labour newspaper The Clarion, authorised its cycle club to pledge
funds to the Spanish Medical Aid Committee, the National Youth Food-ship
Committee and the International Brigade, which a number of its members
subsequently joined.30 However, the Republic’s defeat ultimately
stalled any regional nationalism and seriously curtailed the overt partisan
nature of regional sports clubs, as Franco attempted to impose Spanish
nationalism and thwart regional expression and culture. In the spring of
1941, Franco, the sports fanatic, revived the Vuelta, undoubtedly precisely
because of its Spanish nationalist potential.31

Footnotes:

1. J. Harrison, "The Regenerationist Movement in Spain After the
Disaster of 1898", European Studies Review, vol 9, Number 1,
January 1979. p2